It Shouldn’t Happen To a Pig, Brass Tacks, BBC2 (1979)

Radio Times
8 May 1979
BBC2
8.10-9.0 New Series
Brass TacksIt Shouldn’t Happen To a Pig

Judge for yourself – as the people who make decisions come face-to-face with the people those decisions will affect. First the arguments, then your chance to join the debate.

Britain’s public health enemy number one is salmonella. It’s a source of disease that lurks in most of the meat that we eat, and it’s on the increase because of the way our farming industry is run.

Diseases spread quickly amongst pigs and chickens in factory farms unless huge quantities of drugs are used to keep them at bay. And those diseases increasingly spill over into the human population. So is it time to call a halt? Is it time to chose between cheap meat and safe meat?

If you want to take part in the Brass Tacks debate, either phone a participating BBC radio station immediately after the programme (details on air and on Local Radio pages of Radio Times) or write to Return Call, Brass Tacks, BBCtv, Oxford Road, Manchester M60 18J

Putting you in the picture

A new concept in broadcasting giving you, the viewer and listener, a chance to have your say on issues of national importance – that’s the idea behind a remarkable broadcasting experiment linking BBCtv and Local Radio stations that gets under way this week.

Brass Tacks will be bringing you up-to-the-minute reports on current affairs live from the BBC’s Manchester studios, and you will be able to join in the argument about the issues raised by phoning your Local Radio station after the programme.

This week Brass Tacks takes the lid off Britain’s factory farms … animals that have to be given regular doses of drugs to keep them healthy … meat stuffed full of hormones and antibiotics … the risk of transmitting disease to the consumer … just some of the by-products of intensive livestock production. The farmers say the new methods are cheaper and keep food prices down, but what is the real price of your Sunday joint?

Your line to Brass Tacks

From next week the Brass Tacks debate is going nationwide – enabling you to make the news – as the Brass Tacks programme on Windscale did last year.

Starting next Monday, BBC2 will be reporting back on what was said and what happened after the Tuesday evening debates on radio and television. Return Call will feature a selection of the ideas and the personalities from the radio debates. Those who aren’t able to take part in the phone-ins can register their views by writing to Brass Tacks in Manchester.

Radio Times, 5-11 May 1979

*No clips of this programme are available as the BBC wiped the tapes shortly after transmission!